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The mamdūd noun (اسْمٌ مَمْدُودٌ) is a singular noun ending with a hamzah (ء) preceded by a long alif. Being a singular means that the words (نِسَاءٌ) "nisā’", (أَهْوَاءٌ) "ahwā’" and (آبَاءٌ) "ābā’", for instance, are not mamdūd nouns, because they are plural. Before we discuss the the rules for mamdūd nouns, let us look at some examples of these nouns:

Here we should note that the letter hamzah (ء) is not a (حَرْفُ عِلَّةٍ) "ћarfu ξillah" (defective/weak letter), but it is a semi-weak letter, because it comes after a long alif, which is similar to the defective letters:

As for the declension of the masculine mamdūd noun, the three diacritical signs appear on it. Here we should highlight two important points: the mamdūd noun may be a masculine, such as (بَنّاءٌ) "bannā’" (builder) and (قَرَّاءٌ) "qarrā’" (reciter) and here the noun must be declinable like the ordinary singular noun, i.e. the short đammah, fatћah and kasrah will appear in the nominative, accusative and genitive cases, respectively. For example:

But if the mamdūd noun is feminine, such as (صَحْرَاءُ) "saћrā’", (خَضْرَاءُ) "khađrā’" and (بَيْضَاءُ) "bayđā’"; here the long alif is called (أَلِفُ التَّأْنِيثِ الْمَمْدُودَةُ) or the feminine long alif. The noun in this case will be a diptote (مَمْنُوعٌ مِنَ الصَّرْفِ) "mamūξu-n mina aŝ-ŝarf" or prohibited from variation, and therefore the diacritical signs will be the đammah for the nominative case and the fatћah for both the accusative and genitive cases. But (like all diptotes) it can be in the genitive case with the diacritical sign kasrah in case it is (مُضَافٌ) (annexing) or prefixed with definite (ال). Let us review some examples below:

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